Princess Diana’s Will: What She Left to Prince William and Prince Harry
It’s been more than two decades since the world mourned the loss of Princess Diana after she passed away following a car crash in Paris. And today, people still have questions about her life, death, and the fortune she left behind.
Here, we’re revealing a few key details about her will including what she left to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
It’s estimated that at the time of her death on Aug. 31, 1997, the Princess of Wales’ net worth was just over $31 million.
A large portion of that was from her divorce settlement with Prince Charles in 1996 in which Diana reportedly received somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million. As part of the settlement, she was allowed to keep her apartment at Kensington Palace which is where her children and their wives call home today.
Prince William and Kate Middleton spend some of their time at their country home Anmer Hall, but their primary residence is an apartment inside the London palace where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also reside. Apartment 8, where they conduct official business meetings for everything from royal duties to charitable work, was Princess Diana’s home until her death.
The terms of the princess’ will when she died stated that her estate would be distributed between her sons and put in a trust until they turned 25.
Other instructions laid out in her will said that the princes would get 75% of her jewelry and the remaining 25% should be divided among her 17 godchildren. However, Diana’s mother and sister, who were the co-executors, changed some of the provisions the late princess had laid out by obtaining a secret variation order from the High Court of Justice. The change meant that William and Harry would not receive their shares of their mother’s estate until they reached the age of 30, which came for William in 2012 and Harry in 2014.
As for Diana’s godchildren, they would only get one memento of the princess’ instead of splitting 25% of her jewels and each piece they received had to be chosen by the executors, which is something that angered their parents.
William and Harry later proposed to their future wives with pieces from Diana’s collection. The Duke of Cambridge gave Middleton Diana’s iconic 12-carat sapphire engagement ring. The sapphire is surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds and set in 18-carat white gold.
“Well as you may recognize now, it’s my mother’s engagement ring and it’s very special to me, as Kate is very special to me now as well,” William said in an interview after their engagement was announced in 2010. “It was only right the two were put together. It was my way of making sure mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”
Seven years later, Harry asked Markle to marry him with a ring he designed himself that included one diamond from Botswana and two diamonds from his mom’s personal collection. He told BBC he did so “to make sure that she’s with us on this crazy journey together.”
